By Becky Kiser
Hays Post

The water was back on about 7:15 p.m. Thursday evening following a break in an 8-inch water main at 3:45 p.m. just northeast of the intersection of 22nd and Donald streets.

“It split apart on the bottom — blew out about a 3-foot piece,” according to Tobin Miller, Hays Utilities Department equipment operator. “We put in a new 6-foot length of pipe.”

He explained the situation to Hays City Manager Toby Dougherty who stopped by to check the repair progress after Thursday night’s city commission meeting.

Although it’s “hard to know why it happened,” Miller suspected the spring weather.

“It’s so dry and the ground has started shifting as it goes going from frozen to thawing out,” he explained.

“It’s not unusual this time of year,” Miller said as waited for the rest of the repair crew to return to the site.

Miller estimated about three blocks of homes were without water for the three and half hours it took to repair the water main break.

Donald Street is coated with mud and water along the repair area.

“We’ll be back tomorrow after the mud dries and just scrape it off the street,” Miller said.

“That’s a lot easier than trying to clean up all this mud,” he said with a grin.